Windsock axles

[Guest fu3]

Dear All,After Glidernut recently revealed his wind pump model, I've done some testing with 'free' axles in FU3. My findings are below. Don't hold your breath, they're somewhat limited but at least I can make my flags wave now!Axle 0 (@x00...) rotates +/- 180 degrees. May be limited by using standard axle limit settings (i.e. @x00bo5050 limits to 180 degrees total)Axle 1 (@x01...) rotates +/- 90 degrees. May be limited by using standard axle limit settings (i.e. @x01bo2525 limits to 90 degrees total)Axle 2 (@x02...) rotates +/- ~5 degrees. Standard axle limit settings appear to have little effect, especially considering the already small rotation. This one would be good for waving flags and possibly coastal/mountaintop trees :-hahAxles 3 through 9 don't appear to do anything, but we don't really know this yet. I just didn't see any movement but they may be linked to other things ;)The others (0, 1) move waaaay too quickly to be of a lot of use, unless you limit the movement a lot. John's use of the 0 axles for his wind pump represent one application whereby the speed doesn't matter (a blur is a blur) and is a good usage of this feature. The rotation is not smooth either, but seemingly random.One way I am dealing with this is to try modifying my standard windsock, to reduce the angles of rotation so it doesn't look like it's being shot at with a machine gun! I'll let you know how I go.:-wave

[Guest glidernut]

Jon,Sum time ago I made an interesting observation when I changed the lineer axile ofthe Stemme,s nose cone, ie, "@z", to a rotateing one, ie "@x", and althow it stilmoovs the nose cone and was still activated on and off by dipresing the d key, the range and speed of its mooment seemed to be identical to what we are witnesing at presant with the unasined axles of the wind-sok. Howh ever, after 10 minits or so of waching the Stemme,s nose cone jiter back andforth with a random elemant to it, to my atonishnent, it slowed nouwn a gear!,And after a ferther 4 minits or so it slowed douwn anuther gear!, and then sloweddouwn to a therd gear!,at this speed it can cleerly be seen as rotateing, not jitering back and forth.Unfortunatly this slowest speed only lasts for a few seconds bifor it stopsalltogether.And it stays stoped untill I press the d key agen, when the howl proses starts overagen.So a rotating axil can inherit a speed elamant to it.The speed elemant in this instance being the time it takes for a linier axil togo fron A to B. Interesting ha?Ps, Thanks for the Hexedit.exe, Iv looked at it and tryed to undertand it butwhen it coums to the part where it says......- Axles are numbered in hexadecimal e.g. axle #10 is 0a, #17 is 11 etc Theres no way I can folow that."#10 is 0a, #17 is 11 etc" ?????.Dont try and explane this, I think Iill go bake a kake insted.glidernut.:-eek

[Guest fu3]

John,No please - the cake will be nice I'm sure but a minute to understand hexadecimal opens up the inner workings of FU3! Really! ALL the 'good' stuff I've uncovered since working on FU3 involves it. Don't worry, you already have the tools to convert it! Fire up your trusty Windows calculator (calc.exe). Switch it to 'scientific' mode using the 'view' menu. If you type in '10', it should look like this:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/128432.jpgNow, see the 'Hex' button center-left? Hit it and Voila! http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/128433.jpgOne conversion. Just remember that hex is always '2 digits to make a number' so, if you get 'A' like above, mentally add a '0' in front of it (to make '0a').Conversly, if you switch to hex and enter '15':http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/128434.jpgWhen you click on 'Dec', it converts the number to (normal) decimal and you get '21':http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/128435.jpgSo, you can nominate the axles as you wish in the 3D model (i.e. 1 to 19) and convert the numbers to hex later and edit the axle file with it. No need to go back and change numbers again ;)The same applies to textures BTW. In the efile, the textures appear in a list up front. In this list, they are numbered in decimal. In the texture allocation sections however, they are numbered in hex. Here's a snapshot of the S340 texture header:MATERIALS{1,"GLASS",FLAT,RGB 100,110,100,TRANSP 80;2,"WNGTPS",PHONG,TMAP "WNGTPS.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;3,"BLACK",PHONG,RGB 38,38,38,TRANSP 0;4,"RRFUS",PHONG,TMAP "RRFUS.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;5,"CRFUS",PHONG,TMAP "CRFUS.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;6,"FRFUS",PHONG,TMAP "FRFUS.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;7,"NGEAR",PHONG,TMAP "NGEAR.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;8,"ACT",PHONG,TMAP "ACT.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;9,"INOUT",PHONG,TMAP "INOUT.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;10,"SPIN",PHONG,TMAP "SPIN.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;11,"MNWHL",PHONG,TMAP "MNWHL.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;12,"FNTWHL",PHONG,TMAP "FNTWHL.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;13,"GEAR",PHONG,TMAP "GEAR.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;14,"DOORS",PHONG,TMAP "DOORS.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;15,"EXH",PHONG,TMAP "EXH.BMP",0,TRANSP 0,DBL;16,"RENG",PHONG,TMAP "RENG.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;17,"LINW",PHONG,TMAP "LINW.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;18,"RINW",PHONG,TMAP "RINW.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;19,"FLFUS",PHONG,TMAP "FLFUS.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;20,"BLACK2",PHONG,RGB 6,6,6,TRANSP 0,DBL;21,"BLACK1",PHONG,RGB 0,0,0,TRANSP 0,DBL;22,"DKGREY",PHONG,RGB 95,95,95,TRANSP 0,DBL;23,"BGREEN",PHONG,RGB 24,55,55,TRANSP 0;24,"SPECIAL",FLAT,RGB 255,255,255,TRANSP 100;25,"CLFUS",PHONG,TMAP "CLFUS.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;26,"RLFUS",PHONG,TMAP "RLFUS.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;27,"LENG",PHONG,TMAP "LENG.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;28,"LWING",PHONG,TMAP "LWING.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;29,"RWING",PHONG,TMAP "RWING.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;30,"TAIL",PHONG,TMAP "TAIL.BMP",0,TRANSP 0;31,"LTGREY",PHONG,RGB 224,224,224,TRANSP 0;}Here is a smidgeon of the left wing texture allocation:4,N,28, 1c,(13,22,23);4,N,29, 1c,(13,23,14);4,N,30, 1c,(13,41,22);4,N,31, 1c,(14,23,21);4,N,32, 1c,(7,14,21);4,N,33, 1c,(7,21,15);4,N,34, 1c,(10,16,20);4,N,35, 1c,(10,20,42);0,N,36,ff15,(27,24,25);0,N,37,ff15,(28,27,25);0,N,38,ff15,(28,25,26);Here, you will see that the wing texture (#28 in the texture list) maps as '1C' in the allocation. If you type '28' into your calculator and switch to hex, you get '1C'. You will also notice some RGB allocations in there too. 'ff(15)' represents texture #21 so my static dissipators are black and visible from underneath! Now, I know that 'ff15' is indeed a hex number (65301) but just ignore the 'ff' on textures, OK?I hope this makes sense! Other places that hex comes up are instrument editing, engine sound control files, ATC screen files (so you can change the name that ATC gives your aircraft), the aircraft description panel (so you write up the right specs for your aircraft) and pretty-well anything that isn't pinned down or hidden inside an executable! We may find the windsock axles in one of the system resfiles :-rollMaybe you should get another cuppa and read it again but I assure you, it will unlock a lot of things :-wave

[Guest glidernut]

O, ye, after 2 cups 2 fags, and no interuptions, Im bigining to see how it allmakes sence now.How cum you know so much, you must hav been to skool or sumthin.Thanks Jon.

[Guest fu3]

Actually, I'm a complete dummy on hex... For all my electronics engineering and hardware design, FU3 was the first time I really needed hex!And, it was Ansgar who jiggled my brain again and again until it sunk in :-hah:-wave